What does SEO-friendly content really look like? 

The need to continually create content won’t come as any surprise to business owners. Having a site that can be easily updated and looks polished is one of the key reasons for investing in a new website design – and the impetus behind that is to have a steady stream of content fed to Google to help with search engine rankings.As the foundation of Google visibility, the importance of content can’t be overstated but, whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur, have managed your web content for years or are new to the game, it’s always beneficial to go back to basics and make sure you truly understand what SEO-friendly content really looks like.

1. Its authoritative It’s one thing to push out a piece of content. It’s quite another to create a piece that has real value. Google increasingly prefers good quality over decent quantity so every piece you publish should be thoroughly audited to check that it’s delivering real value and getting your expertise across.Authority content will be;·Well-researched·Include quotes from respected figures in the industry·Cite relevant research·Quote recent data·Have visual content throughout such as images, videos, GIFs, tables or infographics·Be original·Add value·Be detailed·Link to appropriate sources·Be free of grammatical errors, well-written and easy to read
2.It’s short and longA well-rounded website has a wealth of SEO-friendly content in its archives. That content should be varied not just in terms of topic and uniqueness of subject but in content length too. You should aim to have a mix of short and long form content to please Google and satisfy your end user.The sweet spot for content length is thought to be around 2000 words but that isn’t to say that ever post you upload to your site should be that length. Some content will naturally lend itself to more concise prose and that could be as short as 200-300 words. The important thing is that the text satisfies the searcher’s search query. Use your best judgement to determine content length depending on the complexity of the subject. 3. Be consistent Juggling the demands of creating longer, original pieces and balancing that with frequency of updates is no picnic but, for your website to be full of SEO-friendly content and help you secure top rankings, you need to maintain a consistent posting schedule. 4. Regularly review your old content If you’ve been creating content for a while, it’s likely your back catalogue will be pretty large. This is great for your site but it shouldn’t be left dormant. Make a point of regularly reviewing old content and updating or extending it where necessary. If you covered a piece of research last year and the new study has just come out for example, you can go back and update last year’s post. Likewise, if you quoted figures from that older study in a different article, you’ll need to revisit it and update the text to include the most recent statistics.